Earlier this month, the Grosse Pointe Moms Club was the subject of an article in Time magazine. The story, which focused on how the group supports the frugalista in all of us, was billed as part of Assignment: Detroit (so is this blog). I am a member of said club, and I serve on the board as well.

Not to bring it up again…'cause I really don't want to get into the whole “Why Harper Woods and not Detroit?” debate…(As an aside, it's because Harper Woods is adjacent to the Pointes and Detroit has a variety of moms clubs as well. It's a geographic thing, not a race thing. But I digress.)

But I think the interesting thing is the reaction the magazine article has created. Our club is now being deluged (well, to the tune of about a dozen calls and emails) with people wanting us to SELL something. Or buy their products. Or help us train for a new career…to SELL their stuff.

Is this what happens to anyone who is featured in the mainstream media? Why would anyone – save Paris Hilton, Spencer from “The Hills” and the Octomom – want to do this to themselves?

I'm not going to get all deep again about how much the Club means to me. But it means enough that I find these pitches truly demeaning. Obviously, the article drew a reaction – from salespeople.

But as my favorite radio guy Craig Fahle has been noting, there is a “New Normal” here in Metro Detroit. Most of us, including yours truly and my mommy buddies, have had to learn to do with less. Some have chosen that route (like me). Others have had it thrust upon them by circumstance (like a job layoff). Others just continue to spend…some because they can, some because they like it, some because that is just how they want to live.

So I offer this to all who want the Grosse Pointe Moms Club to “lift ourselves up by the bootstraps” and start an at-home business, schlepping laundry detergent or other cutesy item…Sorry. We might be a little pinched in some areas, but we're not really interested in taking up a few jobs. We all made a financial decision when we started to stay at home. That took some guts in this era of dual-income families. So most of us are okay with a little sacrifice and scrimping.

With this new knowledge of what it means to be a celebrity in the modern era, I'm guessing Detroit doesn't want more publicity just because it doesn't want the pity, the pitches or the disruption. There's a big sign on our collective door, and it says, “No Soliciting.”

<a href="http://twitter.com/TheDetroitHouse" target="_blank" class="beforetweet">TheDetroitHouse</a> After a year of learning, observing and understanding, TIME says goodbye to Detroit. Podcast: All Good Things... http://shar.es/0V3I7 - 4 years ago

NICHOLAS FISHER, expert at Stony Brook University in New York who took part in a study which found that bluefin tuna contaminated with radiation believed to be from Fukushima Daiichi were present off the coast of California just five months after the nuclear meltdown.